All Things Immaculate Grid-related (MLB, NBA, NFL)

[Ope3]

Day 1 and the quest for a perfect month is over. I mixed up Ed Kranepool with Ed Hearn for Mets Catcher.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid:

Reds - Sal Butera / 0.7%
Dodgers - Mickey Hatcher / 3%
Mariners - Mitch Garver / 3%

 

[coolhandgopher]

Day 1 and the quest for a perfect month is over. I mixed up Ed Kranepool with Ed Hearn for Mets Catcher.

Same happened to me, but in a different manner-I thought Early Wynn was a shoo-in for 6+ WAR with the ChiSox, turns out he only did that with the Indians.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins Alert on the Grid:

Reds - Sal Butera / 0.7%
Dodgers - Mickey Hatcher / 3%
Mariners - Mitch Garver / 3%

I went:
Reds-Kyle Farmer (5%)
Dodgers-Geoff Zahn (.3%)
Mariners-Justin Topa (1%)

I was also able to slot Frankie Rodriguez into the Mariners/BoSox square for a cool .004%.

I’m quite surprised Mickey Hatcher was a 3%’er. Journeyman outfielder who bounced between the two franchises with a career 2.9 WAR. Another mysterious equation from the IG.

 

[Ope3]

I went:
Reds-Kyle Farmer (5%)
Dodgers-Geoff Zahn (.3%)
Mariners-Justin Topa (1%)

I was also able to slot Frankie Rodriguez into the Mariners/BoSox square for a cool .004%.

I’m quite surprised Mickey Hatcher was a 3%’er. Journeyman outfielder who bounced between the two franchises with a career 2.9 WAR. Another mysterious equation from the IG.

For MIN-LAD, I thought it was interesting that Jim Thome was the Most Popular at 11%, which is pretty small for that honor. Thome played a whopping 17 games in Dodger Blue.

I suppose just lots of identifiable options for those 2 teams, but not really anyone that was career defining for both.

Thome might be the only Twin-Dodger HoFer, not counting Senators.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid. I've been waiting to spring the Swarzak selection for a run at Single Digit Rarity.



It was an 8 Total earlier, but has crept up to 9.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins Alert on the Grid. I've been waiting to spring the Swarzak selection for a run at Single Digit Rarity.

View attachment 37246

It was an 8 Total earlier, but has crept up to 9.

I went with:
Astros: Mark Davidson (.1%)
ChiSox: “Lefty” Carlton (5%)
100 RBI’s: Bob Allison (1%)

I thought I would be able to sneak Carlton past for a smaller score, but no dice; that along with Twins alum Don Baylor for the Angels/100 RBI’s slot at 8% put my score in the 20’s—nice work on your sub 10% achievement.

 

[Breakin' The Plane]

It's been going on for awhile, so I'm happy that they seem committed to shaking things up. The new category today was made a field goal. Unfortunately, I burned myself. I had it in my head that since Jeff Feagles was a punter for about 35 years, he must have been forced into a field goal attempt at some point. He was, but unfortunately, he missed the kick.

 

[coolhandgopher]

It's been going on for awhile, so I'm happy that they seem committed to shaking things up. The new category today was made a field goal. Unfortunately, I burned myself. I had it in my head that since Jeff Feagles was a punter for about 35 years, he must have been forced into a field goal attempt at some point. He was, but unfortunately, he missed the kick.

I almost went with Feagles before remembering it was another mustachioed kicker (Tony Franklin) who was their kicker with the Vermeil era Eagles.

 

[Ope3]

I went with:
Astros: Mark Davidson (.1%)
ChiSox: “Lefty” Carlton (5%)
100 RBI’s: Bob Allison (1%)

I thought I would be able to sneak Carlton past for a smaller score, but no dice; that along with Twins alum Don Baylor for the Angels/100 RBI’s slot at 8% put my score in the 20’s—nice work on your sub 10% achievement.

Thanks! Carew is sneaky low on the Twins/100 RBIs. Art Howe only being 1% was key.

Lefty at 5% does seem high for a Twins/White Sox combo.

Gaetti is really valuable and a versatile Grid stalwart. In addition to playing for 6 teams, G-Man checks boxes on 100 RBIs, 2000 Hits, All Star, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove categories. While primarily at 3B, also played LF, RF, SS & 1B.

Even pitched a bit, with 2 years a 0.00 ERA.

 

[Ope3]

Gaetti is really valuable and a versatile Grid stalwart. In addition to playing for 6 teams, G-Man checks boxes on 100 RBIs, 2000 Hits, All Star, Silver Slugger and Gold Glove categories. While primarily at 3B, also played LF, RF, SS & 1B.

Even pitched a bit, with 2 years a 0.00 ERA.

I used Gaetti in a different category today, but after the fact noted that he would have worked in the +40 WAR/Career as well.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Grid.

I used today to help build my "Players Used" Stat up to 766 with 358 Grids completed since tracking with a Log In. All 3 Twins were newbies.

Tigers - Kody Clemons (1%)
Guards - Roy Smith (0.4%)
Pitched - Jonah Bride (0.3%)

I also used Les Straker in the Foreign Born/Pitcher Category for a 0.05% score.

Welcome to the Ope3 Immaculate Grid Club.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins Alert on the Grid.

I used today to help build my "Players Used" Stat up to 766 with 358 Grids completed since tracking with a Log In. All 3 Twins were newbies.

Tigers - Kody Clemons (1%)
Guards - Roy Smith (0.4%)
Pitched - Jonah Bride (0.3%)

I also used Les Straker in the Foreign Born/Pitcher Category for a 0.05% score.

Welcome to the Ope3 Immaculate Grid Club.

I'm also working on seeing how many total players that I can accumulate. Because I have been more centralized than you, I have a larger number of completed grids (800) with a total number of 1348 players used. It's getting into territory where the "new" players used is getting pretty incremental--I'm at home visiting my Mom for a couple more weeks, I really need to drag out my old baseball card collection and absorb the forgotten names of the '70s through the '90s.

On the Twins line the other day, here's who I used (I'm also trying to bring down my average overall score--when I started doing the Grid, I had some really large numbers, so I'm struggling to bring that average score down):
Tigers: Larry Paschke (.01%)
Guardians: Paul Sorrento (.8%--nice use of Roy Smith, btw--I'd forgotten about him, I'll have to work him back one of these days)
Pitched: Vic Albury (.08%--you can also use Vic as an exclusive Twin)

For pitched, born overseas, I used Albert Williams (.03%)--the former Nicaraguan Sandinista who worked his way into the rotation in those lean days of the early '80s.

 

[Ope3]

I'm also working on seeing how many total players that I can accumulate. Because I have been more centralized than you, I have a larger number of completed grids (800) with a total number of 1348 players used. It's getting into territory where the "new" players used is getting pretty incremental--I'm at home visiting my Mom for a couple more weeks, I really need to drag out my old baseball card collection and absorb the forgotten names of the '70s through the '90s.

On the Twins line the other day, here's who I used (I'm also trying to bring down my average overall score--when I started doing the Grid, I had some really large numbers, so I'm struggling to bring that average score down):
Tigers: Larry Paschke (.01%)
Guardians: Paul Sorrento (.8%--nice use of Roy Smith, btw--I'd forgotten about him, I'll have to work him back one of these days)
Pitched: Vic Albury (.08%--you can also use Vic as an exclusive Twin)

For pitched, born overseas, I used Albert Williams (.03%)--the former Nicaraguan Sandinista who worked his way into the rotation in those lean days of the early '80s.

Thanks on the Roy Smith call out.

I did a deep dive on the 1987 Twins a little more than a week ago and it's paid off, having been able to use in addition to Roy others such as Billy Beane, Dan Schatzeder, Les Straker & Jeff Bittiger recently. I have Joe Klink and Keith Atherton warming up in the Bullpen.

Even though I have selected Gladden before, also used him on a Giants 30 SBs cube which I did not know about for solid Rarity.

Sorrento will be a good one in the future for me. I've already used Al Williams. Sneaky 10 Game winner. Nice work on those.

Enjoy your time back in the States as well as your family visit!

 

[Ope3]

I'm also working on seeing how many total players that I can accumulate. Because I have been more centralized than you, I have a larger number of completed grids (800) with a total number of 1348 players used. It's getting into territory where the "new" players used is getting pretty incremental--I'm at home visiting my Mom for a couple more weeks, I really need to drag out my old baseball card collection and absorb the forgotten names of the '70s through the '90s.

Lots of solid opportunities to add Newbies in Today's Grid, at least on the Phillies & Angles lines with 40+ WAR, 10 Ws & Played SS.

Phils I scored with Jim Bunning (WAR) and Randy Lerch (10 Ws). I thought I had another with Ivan de Jesus, but somewhere along the line I have already used him.

Angels I landed Jim Abbott (10 Ws) and Rene Gonzales (SS). All the 40+ WAR guy that I could think of I have already used, so just plugged in Carew. After the fact, I can utilize Kevin Appier in the future.

With the 4 today I am now at 886 Players used for 415 Grids completed.

 

[Ope3]

Twins Alert on the Baseball Grid today.

Expos-Nats / Brendan Harris (0.3%)
1 G OF / Chris Colabello (0.07%)
200H-Season / Sam Rice (2%)

I dipped into the Senators to help out my Overall Players selected to reach 1,050 for 472 Grids completed.

Sam Rice is an interesting story as he ended his career with 2,987 just 13 shy of 3,000. He played his entire career with old Washington except for his last season (1934) in Cleveland. He was still productive hitting .293 at age 44 in 97 games

3000 just wasn't that big of a deal, I suppose or Cleveland probably would have played him a bit more to hit the milestone. A couple of seasons later, Clark Griffith did reach out to him to see if he wanted to make a comeback for the mark, but Rice passed.

Sam Rice - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All 3 Twins-Senators are Newbies. I also used Jesus Alou (Giants/OF) and Roberto Kelly (Yankees/OF) to help the cause. I have now exhausted all of the members of the Alou clan.

 

[coolhandgopher]

Twins Alert on the Baseball Grid today.

Expos-Nats / Brendan Harris (0.3%)
1 G OF / Chris Colabello (0.07%)
200H-Season / Sam Rice (2%)

I dipped into the Senators to help out my Overall Players selected to reach 1,050 for 472 Grids completed.

Sam Rice is an interesting story as he ended his career with 2,987 just 13 shy of 3,000. He played his entire career with old Washington except for his last season (1934) in Cleveland. He was still productive hitting .293 at age 44 in 97 games

3000 just wasn't that big of a deal, I suppose or Cleveland probably would have played him a bit more to hit the milestone. A couple of seasons later, Clark Griffith did reach out to him to see if he wanted to make a comeback for the mark, but Rice passed.

Sam Rice - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All 3 Twins-Senators are Newbies. I also used Jesus Alou (Giants/OF) and Roberto Kelly (Yankees/OF) to help the cause. I have now exhausted all of the members of the Alou clan.

I went with:
Expos: Charlie Lea (.3%)
OF: Downtown Darrell Brown (.001%)
200: Sam Rice too!

As with you, I was new player hunting and I think I accomplished the goal with the Twins row. Is there a way to check if you’ve used a player already? You are really killing it-I am at 1361 players across 810 grids.

 

[Ope3]

I went with:
Expos: Charlie Lea (.3%)
OF: Downtown Darrell Brown (.001%)
200: Sam Rice too!

As with you, I was new player hunting and I think I accomplished the goal with the Twins row. Is there a way to check if you’ve used a player already? You are really killing it-I am at 1361 players across 810 grids.

Great pull on Charlie Lea.

As I am going back completing the archives, it's quite an unfair advantage on my end because I have really been seeking to increase the total on the last 150 grids I have filled out (backdated). Certain categories really lend themselves to mining those previously unselected such as Foreign Born, Played/Pitched 1 Game at a position, 1 Team and even All Stars etc.

I have also done really deep dives into the Hall of Famers, 2000 Strikeouts, 200 Wins, 300 HRs & 2000 Hit lists. If you have 6-10 really at top of mind, it's amazing how many hit on an upcoming grid. I really grind to get at least 1 Newbie per Grid.

Another unfair advantage, I already completed all the ones prior to when the Log In option was allowed, so the entire 2023 & 2024 Grids are repeat efforts for me.

 

[Ope3]

Is there a way to check if you’ve used a player already?

I don't think there is, which is also a challenge for me on my redos. You recently referenced Al Williams, who I knew I used over a year ago but was not sure I used him since post-Log In. Turns out he was fair game.

I'm not even sure if I have used guys like Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle.

Unknowingly, I didn't realize I hadn't used Nolan Ryan until about a week ago and then plugged him in a Mets/2000K box when I was just looking for rarity.